A 12-year process reached its final stage to implementation last week in the desert cities last week. The Coachella Valley Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan has officially gone into effect, protecting 27 species of wildlife after a years-long push for its installment.
The 75-year, $2.2 billion plan was created to preserve the land that hosts a habitat to 27 of the desert's protected and endangered species. The previous plan protected only the fringe-toed lizard, which had been the only species designated for protection by the government's Endangered Species Act since 1980. The current plan will secure a sustainable future for the region, taking into consideration the ecosystem that is native to the desert community and regulation that supports it.
Changes in the Valley that result from the Conservation Plan are as follows:
1. Valley officials can begin to buy land for habitat, partly supported by the $30 million in allocated funding by Coachalla Valley Association of Governments (CVAG.)
2. A habitat migration fee of $5,730 per acre will be collected from new development projects.
3. Once the only Coachalla Valley city to originally opt out of the habitat plan, with city leaders expressing concerns that it could negatively impact proposed projects such as the Palmwood Golf Club, Desert Hot Springs can now formally join the plan.
4. A formal signing ceremony and celebration will take place later this fall to commemorate the plan's formal implementation.